Marc Chagall’s stunning gift of reconciliation
St. Stephan’s church in Mainz, Germany has stunning stained glass windows. The church burned on February 27, 1945 and Marc Chagall designed most of the current windows in the late 1970’s.
The windows show love stories of all kinds: Colorful people and angels float in a sea of blue glass. In light of the Holocaust, I was especially touched by the window of Abraham pleading with three angels to spare Sodom and Gomorrah.
Create something new: What would you do with 500 olive trees?
500 olive trees. Sciacca, Sicily. © Laurel Decher, 2016. I recently came across another inspiring example of using your inheritance to create something new. Alessandro inherited 500 olive trees with his grandfather’s Sicilian property. Most people look at 500 olive trees and think olive oil, but Alessandro had a different idea: soap. His engineering Ph.D. […]
Hope for Spring: Prince Charles’ Duchy Home Farm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcHXZV74BL4/ We just watched DER BAUER UND SEIN PRINZ (The Farmer and his Prince) about Prince Charles’ organically run farm. I ordered the DVD from the local bookstore here in Germany. Oddly, it’s unavailable anywhere in the Commonwealth. The film made me think about growing things and raising chickens. For years after failing with chickens […]
Spring is coming. Let’s not give up on hospitality yet.
Forest road in spring green with a blue sky above. Kottenforst, Germany. © Laurel Decher, 2016. Is Migration Our Lot? Lately, I’ve been wondering if migration is our natural lot and living peacefully in one place all our lives a rarity. Cranes are migrating and their calls remind me of spring. The current news shows […]
What Do You Do for Fifteen Minutes a Day?
A few moments of light change the whole forest. Germany. © Laurel Decher. How Often Do You Think “It’s All or Nothing?” When we’re overcome by life and can’t get to the things and the people that matter to us, we get frustrated. Do you ever think. . . . . .If we don’t have […]
Hope for February: ESPERANZA RISING and Esperanza Spalding
Hopeful signs: Tiny snowdrops dusting the ground under giant trees bare of leaves under a gray sky. Kriegshoven, Germany. © Laurel Decher, 2016. Hope keeps cropping up . . . Hope keeps cropping up. In February things can look dark in the Northern Hemisphere, but the light always comes. I want to share some hope […]
Noblesse oblige, libraries, trees, and cyberbullying prevention
What can you do with your heritage? Noblesse oblige for the modern age. If you inherited a castle, what would you do with it? In a nearby village, the lovely Burg Satzvey was built in the early 1300’s and hosts jousting and other medieval-themed shows for the entertainment of the populace. Half-timbered houses cluster around […]
What must be said: hardware, broccoli, and love
Last night I learned a dear friend died. She and her husband helped us when our first child was born and were both friends and second parents to us. That’s when she inscribed a copy of THE ENCHANTED BROCCOLI FOREST cookbook: “In our hearts, you’ll always be our neighbors.” The news reminded me about grief, […]
The Power of the Silver Pen: Journals, Photos, and Collections Help Order Our Lives
Marie Kondo’s THE LIFE-CHANGING MAGIC OF TIDYING UP explores the benefits of de-cluttering at a level I can’t attain but it reminds me that things help us find out who we are. The things I like and don’t like, need and don’t need, are like mirrors that reflect information back to me and help me […]